This year there were so many good icon packages made. How can one pick between all these outstanding icons packages? The hard work and dedication each designer put into these is evident. Of the dozens of icon packages submitted, we have narrowed it down to just these few for the "best overall" icon package. There were a lot of variables that went into it. Uniqueness, detail, quantity, OS support, etc. But most of all, the icons had to have universal appeal. This is hard to quantify but icons that most users would tend to think are "neat" and want to try out. All those factors combined, at different ratios, are what the judges have been looking at.
Seed icons by Rokey. Very well done. Multiple resolutions, XP only, around 60 icons. Very very good use of a consistent and unique style.
Cardinal Blue icons . 138 icons. Works on every version of Windows. Many resolutions. Outstanding attention to detail. Support for many many skin formats. Good icon design but color usage is not optimal. Might have been better off creating a single icon package that had more colors in it rather than gray and the dominant one.
The Last Order icons by Rokey. 66 icons, XP only. Icons are fantastically good with a rendered look to them. These are the type of icons one can imagine coming with some future super fantastic operating system.
TreeTog's PirateOS icons. 103 icons, all versions of Windows supported. Multiple resolutions. Very good use of color, very friendly style.
Mindless Puppet's Dementaecon. ~100 icons, Not only do they support multple OSes but different resolutions have different icons for clarity. Most creative icon package by far.
Milo's D3A icons. 71 icons, XP only. Like The Last Order have that rendered feel to them which makes them also feel like they're part of some futuristic operating system. Fantastic use of color. One other thing, 16x16 icons are redesigned which means that they don't become little smudges
This is vf's Megaton icons. 144 icons, very nicely done. XP-only. Very dark icons with red as the only color limit their universalness.
DanilloOC's Flooter icons. 129 icons, multiple resolutions. Very sparing use of color may limit universal appeal but image quality is immensely good.
vf's Al.loy Bezel. 127 icons. Multiple resolutions. XP only. Very detailed. 16x16 (detailed view) icons are a bit smudged (i.e. file types icons have labels as part of the icons but at 16x16 are no longer readable). Monochrome design may limit universality. But sparing use of color adds class as well.
Vladimir's Smile icon package. Roughly 100 unique icons in it. Outstanding design. Somewhat similar to the Toon-XP icons. Very well done, very friendly design.
Thunderstorm. 96 icons. Supports all versions of Windows. What particularly stands out on this is the quality of the actual elements (like the folders and such). Very clear. Only downsides would be that it's monochrome which may limits its appeal and the icons are scaled to 16x16 (no switch over to pixel created 16x16 which means details view may look a bit smudgy when looking at file types).
There are others that we also found were very very good. We regret we didn't have more categories. We really liked DigitalChet's Novacons. We also liked Z71's Layout_IP but recognized that the color options on it may limit its appeal. Farid's HFN Sapphire was also really nice.
people would be interested in not just using it but paying $20 for it. WindowBlinds was $20 from day 1. people would be interested in not just using it but paying $20 for it. WindowBlinds was $20 from day 1.| Author | Skin | Shot | Notes | |
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kriptoner | D-Reliction |
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Outstanding coding combined with excellent graphics put this in the running along with a high level of usability |
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883 | Enkera |
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One of the most original and unique designs of the contest combined with lots of color options, and terrific design. |
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VAG - METASKINS | Metaskins.net - WooHoo-FER |
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Outstanding coding and well crafted graphics along with both a "cool looking" and well done usability version. |
| 4th | Andrew Mackowski | EMP 2 |
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Very high usability with lots of different color options. Scripting not as sophisticated but outstanding aesthetics make up for that. |
| 5th | Muniom Designs | Resurgence |
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Really good coding, good usability with lots of color options make this one of the tops. |
Which Winamp skin do you think is the best overall? Which WindowBlinds visual style do you think is tops? Which icon package do you think is better than all the rest? Now WinCustomize subscribers can vote for their favorite entries!
If you're not a WinCustomize subscriber, you can go here to become one. WinCustomize subscriptions are what have paid for the IT work and bandwidth for this contest. It also helps us avoid "ballot stuffing" to get a more accurate idea of the user favorites.
| To subscribe to WinCustomize: WinCustomize Store
To Vote: User Choice Voting Booth |
Popular msstyle author, Bant, has taken his ball and gone home. Seems he's unhappy with the customization community. In particular, he says that TGT Soft and Stardock are a disgrace to the skinning community.
You can read what he wrote here:
http://bant.deviantart.com/journal/2601098/
Bant is the creator of about a half dozen very good msstyles and 1 very good WindowBlinds skin.
Here's my response:
That's odd, I remember back in 1997 when we were designing what would become WindowBlinds and I just can't remember seeing anyone called "Bant".
I remember when the first customization site, Customize.org got started, I don't recall seeing you there. And as the person who made the first skin that skinned the Windows GUI, I tend to think that this CEO of the "disgraceful" Stardock might have contributed something to the customization community.
Now, in the 7 years we've spent working on WindowBlinds, which we provide a free unlimited downloadable version of that works on Windows 95 through Windows XP, I really have a hard time seeing how Stardock is somehow a "disgrace" to the customization community. I see Stardock as a group of people who have spent many many years working very hard to make it easy for people to customize Windows. Before Stardock came along, there was no Windows customization as we know it today. Feel free to go on archive.org and look back as far as you can at customize.org and you'll see what I mean.
And of the software that we don't outright give away as freeware we sell for between $8 and $20 apiece Or about the price of a couple of pizzas.
I also have a hard time seeing how Stardock is a "disgrace" when it put together the GUI Olympics, a contest in which skinners will make up to $15,000 in it.
Or how about the freeware Stardock makes? BootSkin, ObjectDock, CursorXP, LogonStudio, and so on. Who makes more FREE customization software than we do that is anywhere near as widely used? We also pay for a website with no spyware, no popup ads that also supports our competitors. Hell, we host Samurize.com!
Do you think the "customization" community as you know it just sprung up randomly? If it was so obvious, why did it take WindowBlinds to get GUI skinning going (eFX came later). Why weren't there IconPackager-like programs before IconPackager (iconphile and e-icons came later). There's still no CursorXP equivalent. There's still nothing quite like DesktopX, which, btw, is a free download and uncrippled. There's no WindowFX equivalent (beyond a few programs that add a few shadows).
Stardock has worked very hard to contribute quite a bit to the customization community. It creates a ton of freeware programs and its non-freeware programs are priced trivially.
And Stardock, as a group, participates actively in the community (such as me here and on Neowin and dozens of other websites).
There are also skin authors now who are able to make a living creating skins.
But more to the point, the skins didn't come first, the software did. The software is there for fun. People (like me) make skins because we enjoy doing it. Just like they make levels for Counterstrike or maps for Warcraft III or mods for Neverwinternights. Most people don't sweat that some developer might make money on it. It's supposed to be for fun.
I'm sorry to see you go, I think you have a lot of potential as a skinner. But I take issue with you saying Stardock is a "disgrace".
Luckily, most vile people on this earth don't pick up on an ideology. And of those that do, few of them are well spoken enough to gather any attention. Unfortunately, that still leaves us with a number of vile human beings that manage to get their despicable world views broadcast to the world. And most of these vile creatures tend to be from the far left.
I don't pretend to know why most of them are left wingers. Maybe it's because there are simply fewer nasty creatures on the right that are capable of putting thoughts and ideas together in a coherent form to earn any attention. Or maybe it's because the media, already sympathetic to the left, tends to be more willing to distribute nastiness that comes from left wingers and sewage from the right.
The fact is that while there are a few right wing ideologues that manage to get out there a lot (Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh to name two), there is no right wing equivalent to Michael Moore, Al Franken, or Ted Rall. Feel free to disagree with me and name someone on the right that is remotely as nasty and hateful as any of three who get anywhere near the kind of coverage they do. The Christian Coalition can be pretty ideological but they get no where near the attention that kooky Hollywood celebrities get. Jerry Falwell will occasionally say something nuts but over and over movie stars and singers such as Barbara Streisand, the Dixie Chicks, Susan Sarandon, etc. manage to get air time with their half-baked ideas and hatemongering.
The vile left can be summed up best by one of its own members, Ted Rall whose belief is simply that he and his kind are more enlightened than the rest of us and therefore he has a duty to try to educate us knuckle-draggers. His mission, like those of his peers, is to let others know that they're not alone. For they are convinced that their number are legion and if they can get the word out, they can change the course of this nation to follow a more enlightened course.
They seem to believe:
They're more common than you may think. They're the smug guy in a political debate on-line who, instead of debating the issue will take time out to correct a misspelling or grammar error -- believing that in itself demonstrates their superiority. Or the guy who will selectively use "facts" in a debate to push their agenda believing a) it's okay to mislead because they're trying to lead us on the proper path and we're all too ignorant to realize that we're being fed BS.
But what bugs me isn't that they exist. Every news group or forum always has a few of these guys. What bugs me is that some of them manage to get so much attention. How does a guy like Michael Moore manage to get so much coverage when his material is so blatantly fabricated or misleading? No scandal over Bowling for Columbine where he misrepresented everything from the basic thesis (why gun violence in the US is so high) to little things like implying he got a gun at a bank. And yet people are ready to believe what's in Fahrenheit 9/11? No wonder he probably thinks people are sheep. Except maybe it's not all people who are sheep, maybe just his customers...
Al Franken is the same kind of thing. I saw him on Tim Russert spouting off left wing talking points as if he really believes that BS. Same sort of thing though, because he's better than us, smarter and us and dog gone it, people like him, he feels a license to crap on all those who don't share his ideology. I mean really, what kind of guy is so full of hate that he names his show to antagonize someone else (The O'Franken Factor, very classy)? As Palpatine put it, "Let the hate flow through you.."
Ted Rall of course is on record thinking that people like Pat Tillman are saps and idiots. He wrote this stuff after he was killed in combat btw. So I guess it's no surprise that he wrote this week his belief that if there is a hell, Reagan is there.
And again, I ask you, are there right wing versions of these guys who are remotely as well known? Most people who are left of center are good decent people just like most people on the right are. A nut like Ann Coulter doesn't mean right wingers are a bunch of extremists. But on the other hand, Ann Coulter isn't wildly popular. Meanwhile, Michael Moore, Al Franken, and Ted Rall have large followings. It should make one wonder of the intellectual and moral character of your ideology when guys like these are increasingly being seen as the face of the left.
The Political Machine is very close to going gold. At that point, it goes off to manufacturing and then to the stores. Ubi Soft, the publisher, plans to have it in stores in between the Democratic and Republican conventions (first couple weeks of August). Not much time until release.
